The river keeps on rising after absorbing hurricane rainfall. It’s changing the habits of the local birds.
We usually see ibises like those pictured browsing on the riverbank. These guys have shifted to the swamp in back of our place.
The river is about a foot over flood stage, and the NOAA river forecast service predicts a further rise of around four inches. Our downstairs should be okay if they’re right about the crest. Some folks downriver on lower-lying land are already inundated.
I’m not fretting because there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. I’ve honed that skill some this year. I’m even pretty calm about the election!
Anyhoo, the temperature dropped into the upper 60s, and there’s low humidity. Nothing to do about that but make a big pot of chili. My secret ingredient? A heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder.
Feel free to share your chili secrets or discuss anything else. Open thread!
We Are In the Home Stretch for North Carolina!
The Audacity of Krope
Here I was expecting still more Trump perfidy.
Nelle
A bit of ground cloves, cinnamon, and mustard seeds. I’m interested in trying the cocoa powder next time.
TBone
A bit of cocoa sounds good, gonna try that! My secret to good chili is to saute the onions and peppers in bacon fat – I dice good, smoky bacon and it’s the first thing to go into the pot. When it’s rendered, I just leave it in there with the softening veggies.
raven
I just finished “THE CREEK” by J.T. Glisson about growing up at Cross Creek and, most likely, being the inspiration for the boy in “The Yearling”. I know Betty is a bit north of there but I feel a connection.
Rose Judson
The secret ingredient in my chili is similar: I add a quarter-cup of black coffee.
Got my flu and COVID boosters this afternoon (I broke my leg back in 2011, which required surgery, which caused a blood clot, which went on a little wander into one of my lungs, so I’m on the NHS’s list of people with pulmonary disorders) and whooooo boy it’s going to be a sweaty, shaky night.
Brant Lamb
Meat quantity = bean quantity = onion quantity. Hot peppers. Cook it forever, so it’s good and thick.
TBone
@Rose Judson: feel better soonest wishes!
Betty Cracker
@raven: I’m about 50 miles south of Cross Creek, and the terrain is very similar. I’ve got Marjorie Keenan Rawling’s cookbook in case we have to weather a zombie apocalypse or something. Although I don’t have any intention of eating a Limpkin!
JCJ
@Rose Judson: Got my COVID shot yesterday. Definitely feeling the results of my immune system going to work. I did the flu a couple of weeks earlier – I was too chicken to do both at once!
LeonS
I’ve been adding cocoa powder to more and more things over the years. It nearly always works. It’s great on rubs, not just for the flavor but an added texture.
Marleedog
Whilst I am not, spousal unit is a dedicated vegan. Rachel Ray’s VegHead chili recipe is good if you cannot have the real thing.
Weftage
What is that tree on the left in the photo? Cabbage palm?
(I do not in the least understand the urgent necessity that some feel to go to Mars or whatever. Between things like that trunk and some of those deep sea thermal vent critters, we surely have all the Alien Life Forms anybody could ever want.)
neabinorb
I’ve been adding a “Karala India” flavored chili crisp to my chili. Delicious!
Rose Judson
@JCJ: I’m flying to Arizona for work on Tuesday so I thought it best to get them both out of the way at once. I should be normal again in about 12-18 hours, based on past experience.
Scout211
I like your low key state of mind, Betty. It has to help with the big things in your life right now. Taking one day at a time is the only way to live life when things cannot be controlled.
I love hunting for recipes on the internet. I have tried numerous different chili recipes over the past 20 years or so and I have enjoyed so many different ones. I keep the good ones in my loose leaf binder. Some good ingredients that I’ve found (not all in the same recipe): brown sugar, RoTel, bacon, jalapeños and any other hot pepper.
Steve LaBonne
Fingers crossed that no water gets in your house.
Bupalos
I use venison, it’s a truly superior meat for chili. And I slow-low grill/smoke it on top of a bed of onions before chopping it up into a fairly fine dice. And a little sweet/sour southwest action with corn and lime.
TBone
Got a jar of local farm made apple butter over the summer and I’m gonna try apple butter glazed pork chops tonight. With honey purchased at same farm.
CaseyL
Here’s hoping the creek don’t rise no more :)
It’s the season for me to make huge pots of chili, and I keep seeing recipes that call for some chocolate, or coffee (but so far none that suggest using both). Since I love both chocolate and coffee, I should try one of those recipes.
brendancalling
Does anyone have a recipe for sauce piquant? It’s a Cajun/creole dish I had for the first time this summer, and it’s wonderful.
ive seen some recipes online, but I don’t trust ‘em. Anyone here have experience with this dish, and willing to share a recipe?
In other news, school is wrecking me this year. Took my first personal day today, due to the sheer level of violence—including a multi-student brawl in my classroom, between two miserable children with mouths worse than battle-hardened marines.
In still other news, some of you may have seen the Politico article about the Harris campaign fucking up in PA. As a Philadelphia canvasser, I’m sad to report it’s not inaccurate. We still lack for signs for voters. Called my local Dems, they said they’re still waiting on Harris.
Canvassing has been steady, but it could be a lot better.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: Oops, not north! I think you would enjoy this book. As it says of the UF page the forward is written by Rip Torn and his role in the movie is incredible!
HinTN
@raven: I really enjoy, aka buy and read, the books you recommend. This one sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks.
@Betty Cracker: I hope we never come to the need for eyeing a limpkin for anything other than its entertainment value. Glad the water ain’t to tall.
mrmoshpotato
Both weather and food sound good.
Darkrose
@JCJ: My wife and I got our flu and COVID shots on Friday. She got hers in each arm and I got both of mine on the left. Aside from some achieness and arm pain for a couple days, we’re both okay. OTOH, my boss was out yesterday because hers really wore her down. It does seem to be worse than last year.
mrmoshpotato
@Rose Judson: Did you have a reaction to your previous COVID shots too?
Raven
@brendancalling: This dude don’t play!
https://youtu.be/Wn2Z7GrHZAg?si=kQT3ABeRCKpBFwNp
Darkrose
My chili recipe is pretty standard and has barely any heat because I’m a spice wimp, but I do add cinammon, a bit of nutmeg, Tony Chachere’s seasoning, and frozen corn.
Doc Sardonic
@Weftage: Looks like one. You can tell by the crisscrossing of the old frond boots.
TaMara
I love swamps. Nothing more peaceful than quietly cruising through one, taking in the sounds and smells, birds and other critters.
The county Dem volunteers dropped off a Harris-Walz yard sign today. What a pleasant surprise. Nice ladies, too. Good talk.
I have a sign on my door that says Solicitors will be fed the Dragon – so when I saw them pull up, I went out to greet them, didn’t want them to feel unwelcome.
Looking forward to the chili food fight to commence.
Raven
@HinTN: Have I mentioned
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
Jager
I make my Chili with Modelo Negra. BTW, our backyard Blue Jay has succeeded in driving all the other birds away. My wife renamed him, Dick. The shiny bastard is the size of a small pigeon.
Ramalama
I arrived in Denver Colorado to finish college (in nearby Boulder), and a family friend took me to a chili cookoff. Not to be confused with chili jagoff. I’d been a vegetarian for maybe 5 years before I decided, “Yes, let us sample the chili.” All of it terrific. Almost none of it contained beans.
I use cocoa powder in mine as well.
TaMara
@Raven: I love him
JML
I’ve been using hot curry powder as part of my spice blend (along with chipotle, cayenne, classic chili powder, onion powder, and cumin) and I really like what it’s done.
sometimes I add beer, sometimes not? been thinking hard about trying a chocolate stout to see what that does.
JML
@Bupalos: ohhhhh, the venison sounds wonderful for chili. must try next time a friend comes back with a buck.
HumboldtBlue
I’ve never made chili.
In other news, Noodles got smacked on the nose by the neighbor cat, Persephone.
Raven
From the great “Texas on the Halfshell” that has a great history of the dish!
Raven
@Ramalama: No beans in chili! With but not in!
TBone
A cabin neighbor years back invited us over for a party involving a big pot of chili. If I’d known it was bear chili, I would not have told him it was good! But it was good, until we found out what we were eating 😔
HinTN
@Raven: No. Sounds interesting
ETA: About millinery, maybe you have.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
So when everyone says cocoa powder, is it unsweetened or sweetened? I’m guessing unsweetened, but want to make sure.
WaterGirl
@Brant Lamb: Did you change your nym on purpose?
Raven
@HinTN: It is, the dude stole hundreds of bird specimens to make fishing flies! It’s a world I knew nothing about.
TBone
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): definitely real cocoa powder, unsweet!
Raven
@HinTN: That is certainly a component that is covered in the book but is also a part of “The Gulf, an American Sea”!
TBone
@Raven: I met a guy in the backwoods on Weikert Run who tied his own flies with his dog’s fur right there on the stream – he used a little petroleum to make the flies float and then he yanked a couple of elusive brook trout out of the water in quick succession right in front of us on the spot. I call him the trout whisperer, Weikert Run is famously difficult.
anitamargarita
I haven’t made traditional chili in forever. For me here in northern NM, chile is red or green. I do make a heckin good vegetarian posole. This fall I am going to smoke some of the Roma tomatoes from my garden, then cook them down to a paste and use a tablespoon or so in the posole.
MazeDancer
Impressed at your Zen ability.
May the river not rise.
But have to laugh at the Floridian chili for the chill factor when the temp is in the 60’s.
Though, the low humidity must be nice.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@TBone: thanks!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Betty, I love your Ibis picture! The whole shot – the prehistoric trees and the amazing birds. ❤️❤️
HinTN
@Raven: I like the recipe for Frank X. Tolbert’s Bowl of Red. The lede: “One pundit said that if chili were a religion, A Bowl of Red would be its bible and Frank X. Tolbert its Moses.” From Texas Home Cooking by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison
ETA: Also included is Hot Pants Chili.
Raven
@TBone: I had no idea what a crazy world fly tying is. I’ve been fishing for 50 years and only fly fished once on the Pere Marquette!
HinTN
@Raven: Yeah, that’s where I read it.
mrmoshpotato
@TBone: Yogi stole one too many pic-a-nic baskets.
Raven
@HinTN: I like Buzzards Breath!
Add cigarette and throw it away!
catclub
No, but you reminded me to look for the recipe for barbeque shrimp po-boys and I think I found a candidate: Garlic butter sauce with red hot sauce and worcestershire sauce. No barbecuing involved.
Albatrossity
Cocoa powder is an essential ingredient in chili, at least in this house!
catclub
Something that well-off Scots and Englishmen do is crazy? You could knock me over with a feather.
Juju
Mild smoked Spanish paprika.
Bg
The sandhill cranes around here have been pretty noisy since before Milton.
My chili secrets- lots of bacon, red and green peppers, sauté the onions and peppers in bacon fat, add cinnamon to the seasoning
Tony Jay
+++ JACKAL NEWS -BREAKING NEWS +++
Speaking of swamp creatures, there’s a rumour
I’m spreadinggoing around that Mags Halberman is planning to release her definitive postscript to the Anno Trumpae as soon as the polls close in November, hoping to suck dry the last stagnant pools of public interest in El Stencho from her vantage point embedded deep in the u-bend of the family’s propaganda machine.Fortunately (well, kinda) a whistleblower over at Torn From The Headlines Publishing Inc found their big red sharpie, drew a line on some sand and leaked a few pages from the first draft onto the Grey Web. Can’t say I’m surprised, or impressed, to even remotely informed, which it pretty much par for the course where Halberman’s coverage of her cash cow is concerned. I did like this bit, though. Not much, but a little.
“….in the back of Mr Musk’s (Elon’s! He always insists) plush Tesla limousine, bubbles from a tall glass of something ruinously expensive tickling my nose, finally letting go of the high-tension physical and emotional contortions required to be with and amongst those fireburst people while still maintaining the polite distance my father’s generation called ‘the unimpressed detachment of an independent observer’, I pondered Mr Bezos’ (Jeff’s! He always insists) parting question.
Who is Donald Trump? What was my measure of the man? Even after all these years of reporting and revelation I found it uncomfortably hard to grapple with the outlines of that question, harder still to put the answer into words, but my reporter’s keen sense of the truly important had been chiselling truth out of that blank rock of confusion since the moment the inveterate showman first descended his gilded escalator and entered the political arena. The answer, I knew, was there to be found. The words were somewhere deep within me.
Who were you, Mister Trump?
Beyond the artfully constructed contours of a half century of cutthroat lifescaping, beyond the shadow of the monstrous caricature ogre promoted by his horrified Democrat opponents, beyond even the monumental but simply-spoken avatar of national self-confidence his supporters looked up to as the nation’s last, best hope for security, there was a real man to be met and measured. But nothing about the answer was easy while his persona still loomed over everything, blinding as a sun at High Noon, and the answer seemed, perhaps, a little bit beyond us all.
Trump, in the end, was a man both like and unlike any other. Custom bespoke. Who was Trump? In the end I concluded that, as with everything else about him, it was just better all round to let him tell his own story. Nobody knew him like the man who’d made him. So who did Trump think Trump was?
My thoughts drifted back to that first interview at Mar El Lago. The man himself standing at dead center of a new world of political wheeler dealing, eyes bright with opportunity, grin never far from a snarl. Newly minted Republican candidate. Outsider no hoper. Born winner. A roaring furnace of ego and doubts and questions and pronouncements intense enough for others to plunge their policy swords into and see them emerge sharper, harder, alloyed with some of his own glitz and glitter. Close to the fire he took your breath away.
“Mr Trump,” I began, “What kind of President would you be?”
He paused. Head cocked. A sliver of stillness amidst the whirl and ruckus of Trumpworld. Had anyone ever asked him that before? Was this the moment that the reality of his new life exploded before him in all its infinite complexity? Would he open now, and allow the world outside to glimpse the man within? The man it was my job to come to know? The playboy dilettante, yes, harsh disciplinarian, certainly, but at the same time the strong family man who would reportedly delay multi-billion dollar meetings because it was his daughter’s school sports day and he never missed out on watching her play volleyball.
Who are you, Donald Trump? Tell us.
“Great question, Maggie. Such a great question. Beautiful question. I’ll be the best President. Amazing President. You’ll look and you’ll say ‘nobody has ever been President like this before’. He makes it look easy. It’s not easy, but I’ll make it look easy. You’ll love it. Tell your readers that.”
Was he wrong? What do you think, Jeff?“
Mr Bezos’ office was offered but chose not to comment.
+++ JACKAL NEWS – BREAKING NEWS +++
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
@JCJ: I did covid, flu, & RSV, all together a few weeks ago, and only had a sore arm on the covid/flu side. I told my son it was easy this year, so I hope I wasn’t lying! Mine was Moderna (I think) so maybe that makes a difference? I’ve had both over the years, and I think they’ve settled on Moderna for me.
Soprano2
Ok I just took a shot in the dark and scored! I’m taking my new cat, Half Pint, to my vet tomorrow to have her checked out. I was told she had been taken to the vet, but my neighbor didn’t know where. I know what side of town the former owner lived on; there is a vet clinic there that’s good and reasonably priced, so I called on the off chance she had been seen there (I called because she has such an unusual name). The woman looked, asked “Is she a black cat?”, which she is, and said yes, she had been there in March and April! She’s going to send me the records after she tells the former owner about it. I’ll be so glad to have that, evidently she’s up to date on her shots so I won’t have to have that done. Now if I can just get her to quit trying to play rough and occasionally bite me. She bit my husband’s hand yesterday – not hard, but he said it was out of the blue, she jumped into his lap and bit his hand! Someone must have played with her rough when she was young. I refuse to engage with her when she starts that behavior, I’m hoping eventually she’ll learn not to do it.
Lapassionara
@catclub: BBQ shrimp in New Orleans means shrimp cooked in butter and black pepper. There are variations on that theme (how much garlic? How much Worcestershire? How many sliced lemons?) but the dish is not BBQ as we usually know it. If you see shrimp slathered with BBQ sauce, run.
and thanks for all the chili suggestions!
Miki
You say Swamp Creatures, I say Betty C’s Yard Art. ;-)
Saw this recipe a few days ago and am thinking it might be pretty good – Turkey Pumpkin Chili Yes, it has cocoa powder in it, and cinnamon, cumin, and cayenne pepper. And it can be made in an Instant Pot, i.e., set it and forget it. Her recipes are pretty forgiving and usually pretty good.
Raven
@catclub: On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London’s Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin’s obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins–some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin’s, Alfred Russel Wallace, who’d risked everything to gather them–and escaped into the darkness.
Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man’s relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thiefis also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man’s destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.
Rose Judson
@mrmoshpotato: Yep! Basically felt like having a bad fever for a few hours.
Well, “feels like”.
Rileys Enabler
30+ years of perfecting chili here and winning a handful of local cookoffs- I share secrets because it delights me to think of cooks making it their own. Unsweetened cocoa powder, good quality- adds the midrange notes to balance the bright acids and deeper umami. Dark beer, one to drink and one to pour in. Bacon or a bit of lard to saute onions. Dash or three of soy sauce and taste test often because it becomes hotter and saltier with time. Dried smoked chiles if you can find them, and add a handful of roughly chopped nopalitos in the last 30 mins for a bit of “what the hell did I just eat”. (It’s cactus and takes on the flavor of your chili while adding a bit of texture). Find that jarred in your local Fiesta Mart or other Mexican grocery. As for meats, I think a blend of bison and venison is great but you can do whatever is on sale, too. Make a giant pot because it freezes beautifully- I put servings into freezer bags, lay them flat and then have chili on call. Don’t forget to make a pan of cornbread to soak it all up. Now I’m hungry.
TBone
@Raven: once while shopping at the local Orvis dealer’s shop in Media I bought some books and one was a Penns Creek fly-fishing guide. When the owner found out where my cabin was, he proposed marriage on the spot! The sport is a definitely a universe unto itself. I also love my copy of Trout Magic (Travers, 1974) full of tall tales and wisdom.
I had to buy the Penns Creek guide a second time because a local central PA friend coveted my copy so much I gave it to him.
Kelly
@Rose Judson: I got my flu and covid shits yesterday. My stomach is a little cranky today and a minor headache. Injection sites are tender.
In better news I’m getting 18 week old Daisy to put her ball down and sit before I throw it again.
mrmoshpotato
@Lapassionara:
LOL! Run to the airport and get on the next flight!
realbtl
Nothing strange about cocoa in chile, chocolate is a major taste in mole based dishes
TBone
@Rileys Enabler: cheddar cheesey cornbread!
TBone
@Soprano2: distract her with fascinating toys rubbed in nip if/when she goes for hands.
piratedan
@Rose Judson: good time to come to AZ, assuming you’re going to Phoenix, so the temps should be just under a 100, which should imply that the evenings should be glorious. Hope you get a chance to do stuff if so inclined.
cckids
My chili secret is to use beef chuck and pork shoulder chunks, be sure to get a good sear, use about 5 different kinds of chili powder, and especially, to add a bottle/can of a good chocolate stout.
NotMax
Brings to mind quite possibly the most entendre laden comic book title ever.
:)
Lyrebird
Of course not! They’re too cute and probably don’t have much meat on ’em anyhow!
Did you ever read Stalking the Wild Asparagus?
Do cattails grow that far south?
IIRC, cattail pollen as a cornmeal sub is workable but tastes pretty yuck.
Hope the crest is minimal and the floors stay dry!
ETA: can confirm that even gluten-free beer works pretty well in chili, and if you have zero-alcohol guests, a little Marmite is similar.
If anyone wants to support Native-grown bean farms, tepary beans are super yum in chili, too!
danielx
Dried chipotle pepper or two in chili, adds nice smokey taste.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Raven:
Oh man, thanks for that recommendation!
oldgold
@Tony Jay: That is poorly written substance free pap.
Trollhattan
Leaving the workplace bunker for lunch I passed the main entry security dude, holding court with two other dudes.
“Mister Nixon I think was an actor before he was president.”
There was more but I didn’t want to delay my interaction with the carnitas platter.
karen marie
@Rileys Enabler:
Do you mean “time on the stove”? I made chili last month . It was pretty spicy when I declared it done and divided it up into pint freezer bags and froze flat, but it is considerably mellower when defrosted and consumed.
I have never followed a single recipe for chili but I look at a bunch of them and then throw it together, adding more things as it cooks and I taste it. I’ve never added cocoa. How much do people use? Like for a big pot?
I still have a fair amount to get through, so it’s going to be probably January before I can make it again but I’m looking forward to trying out people’s suggestions.
Rose Judson
@piratedan: We’ll be in Tucson – client has booked an early-morning hike, which will line up well with my jet lag situation.
Princess
@Trollhattan: He was great in Bedtime for Kissinger.
The Audacity of Krope
@Princess: 🎶🎶Bedtime…For Kissinger…and Cambodiaaaaa…🎶
p.a
Blackstrap molasses, marmite. If I have time & energy, I do a dried pepper hack “mole” (pace all abuelas!): toast seeded dried peppers (I use toaster oven- easier than pan-watching, whatev I have, usually guajillo, N Mex, ancho, puya, unseeded arbol), onion, pepitas, tomato, worcestershire sauce, molasses, marmite, cocoa powder, liquid of choice (lager preferred) in a blender to pourable but thick consistency. Fine strain into pan, simmer. Doesn’t have to be cooked forever like a real mole. Salt & honey to taste. I include arbol in the pepper mix so heat isn’t an issue. You do you. Add to your chili proteins/beans/veggies. And ground dried porcini is nice too. Your coffee grinder is your friend.
Suburban Mom
@brendancalling: The late Paul Prudhomme had a few options. Google Paul Prudhomme sauce piquant and your protein of choice and you’ll get what you need.
raven
@TBone: Sweet!
raven
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: sure
Old School
@oldgold:
I wouldn’t be that harsh on Tony Jay. It amused me.
Gin & Tonic
Boo fucking hoo. There’s a very good chance we’ll see a hard frost tonight. Elevations above 3000 saw white last night. Yeah, won’t last, but still, ski season is coming.
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
I looked to see if anyone else had the same addition to chile but didn’t see it so here goes: in addition to cocoa (or unsweetened chocolate, but usually cocoa), and some canned chipotles, I add a shot or two of Asian fish sauce. It gives it a nice shot of umami. My son uses kombu, but I always have fish sauce on hand.
I used to grind my own chili powder from a variety of dried, toasted chilis, but I don’t make chile often enough anymore to keep them on hand. And I’ve grown lazy.
Tony Jay
@oldgold:
Blushes.
Achievement unlocked.
Jay
@Raven:
Scottish Spey Flies traditionally have a hackle made from the breast feather of a Grey Heron. As Grey Herons are a protected or endangered species almost across their entire range, you can’t buy the feathers for love or money.
I have a skin that has lasted me decades, Spey Style Flies are popular here for Steelhead and Coho. A friend of mine with F&W had to shoot it because it was feasting at the Chehalis River Salmon Hatchery and there was nothing they could do to stop it. It was eating almost 100 salmon fry and parr a day.
F&W had to write up a Non-Transferable CITES report before I could even take the carcass, then I had to skin and dry it. The Non-Transferable part was to ensure I couldn’t sell the several thousands of dollars worth of breast feathers.
Soprano2
@Raven: I heard a podcast about that, I think it was This American Life.
cain
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)):
oooh.. good idea.. I’m going to try that! My daughter is coming into town today as a surprise visit. Her dad and her brother doesn’t know, but it would be a nice thing to make I think.
SuzieC
A Mexican beer, either Corona or Negro Modelo. Red beans from Rancho Gordo. Chunks of beef or steak rather than ground beef. Add some chorizo. Poblano and adobo peppers, some pickled jalapenos. I second brown sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.
citizen dave
@Trollhattan: Speaking of Nixon, well-known (at least to me) YouTuber Bald and Bankrupt just put up a video touring Laos. Anyone remember Laos? A Laotian in the 1960s and 1970s must have thought that Hell itself had descended upon their land. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9MReIPQpE&t=76s
Per google: From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped 4 billion bombs on Laos. To this day, the country holds the dubious distinction of being the most heavily bombed neutral country in history.
We dropped more bombs on Laos than on Japan and Germany in WWII.
FelonyGovt
@Rose Judson: I had Covid + flu shots on Friday and it wasn’t too bad, other than feeling REALLY tired (like sleeping-all-day tired) the next day and a sore arm for a couple days.
TBone
I guess I make whipipo of the Tim Walz variety chili, some of these sound like science projects to me 😂
What it lacks in heat, it makes up for in flavor though. It’s spicy hot, but in a very polite, unoffensive way!
FastEdD
Shelby’s chili mix is a rip off but I use it anyway, because, cars. Cheap steak cut to the size of your big toe, seared first. Buncha vegges, not to heavy on the beans. Masa flour for thickness. Slow cooker. Let it sit for a day or two in the fridge. Serve with cheese and a hunk of sourdough bread and good beer. Optimal location under a tree in a campground far away from humans.
Sure Lurkalot
@catclub: Here’s a recipe that I’ve used for years with a “dirty” garlic butter sauce. It’s a lot of butter because the shrimp poach in the liquid, though lots of french bread to soak it up would not be discouraged by me.
1 lb large (U16/20) shrimp, raw and unpeeled
1 stick butter
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
1 tsp Tabasco or other hot sauce
1 tbsp freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 cloves garlic (minced or pressed)
1 lemon, sliced
Melt butter in microwave or on stove, let cool. Add Worcestershire, rosemary, pepper, garlic, lemon juice and Tabasco. Mix well.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Rinse shrimp. If you prefer, you can snip the back of the shell with a scissor (to make them easier to eat) but DO NOT PEEL. Pour a small amount of the sauce in a baking or casserole dish. Layer shrimp and sliced lemon. Pour over remaining sauce.
Bake for 10 minutes; take out, stir and bake for 10 minutes more. Serve immediately with crusty bread to sop up the sauce.
Mark’s Bubbie
@Marleedog: I recommend Trader Joe’s soy chorizo. Adds a nice kick to veg chili. I am not familiar with RR’s version… will have to check that out.
piratedan
@Rose Judson: oooo, that’s where I reside, where are you hiking?
Baud
Anyone here listen to One Direction?
Sure Lurkalot
Deleted, somehow duplicated!
Trollhattan
@Baud: Do they become Juan Direction when visiting Argentina?
Too soon?
VeniceRiley
1)Tony Jay just made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
2) Chili recipe talk is like NY rent talk. If you’re not involved, it’s crazy how into it everyone else can be.
3) Travelled to the north of Tenerife to Puerto and, after some fits and starts and detours, found my wife’s grandmother’s grave in an old English cemetery. High fives all around.
Sure Lurkalot
@Lapassionara: I posted a family favorite recipe for the butter/pepper/worcestershire shrimp you are describing a bit further down in the thread….I’ve been making this since the 80’s!
mrmoshpotato
@Sure Lurkalot:
Why not peel them?
Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
Extra flavour in the shells, legs and heads.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: He fell from a hotel balcony. I confess, I didn’t know he was russian.
lowtechcyclist
@Raven:
Yeah, whatever. I put mostly chickpeas in with the beef, I include some kidney beans but if there’s a lot of them, it’s hard on my stomach these days.
For spices, it’s mostly chili powder and cumin for me, and I toss in a can or two of Ro-tel chilies. And just enough tomato sauce so that you can stir it. (My wife thinks chili is a kind of soup, and so it should be soupy. Fortunately, I’m the one who makes the chili, and if she wants to add more liquid of some sort to her bowl, she’s welcome to do so.)
lowtechcyclist
@citizen dave:
I remember when Phred got traded to the Pathet Lao in Doonesbury.
The Audacity of Krope
@lowtechcyclist: I prefer the chili a little thinner, myself. The texture itself isn’t the issue but these tend to have a lighter flavor and not be overwhelmed by tomatoes. Thick chilis don’t seem to know whether they want to be chili or tomato sauce and don’t do a good job at either, in my own opinion.
TBone
PSA:
https://www.alleycat.org/october-16-is-alley-cat-allies-global-cat-day-and-national-feral-cat-day/
https://nationaltoday.com/national-feral-cat-day/
The Audacity of Krope
@lowtechcyclist: I knew a Hmong family from Laos, went to high school with a couple.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
Yeah, Florida barely has elevations above 300.
Trollhattan
Am certain everybody wants their day seasoned with news about Elmo. Elmo is very certain California are big meanies who thrive on being mean to Elmo.
I like our new Newsom, whose name could also be a mashup of the CA and MI governors.
Baud
Some folks here were talking about this.
lowtechcyclist
@The Audacity of Krope:
Mine just have enough tomato sauce so you can stir the chili at all, you wouldn’t be able to tell by the color that any tomato sauce was there. So no confusion as to which it is, but whether it does a good job of being chili, you’d obviously have to sample mine to know for sure.
Baud
For all the young people here who think things were always better in the past.
The Audacity of Krope
I’ll send you my address and enough postage for a five pound vat and five pounds insulated packaging.
Tony Jay
@VeniceRiley:
My only defence is that the genuine Halberman tome is going to be far, far worse than my effort, and would be even if I hadn’t cut the bits where she airily justifies his racism, misogyny and Christofascist pandering as politically savvy compromises any great leader would make to keep their political coalition viable.
Some think the corporate media are going to memory-hole Trump as soon as he loses in November, I think they’re going to pull up dead trees to normalise ‘Trumpism’ as an understandable all-American response to perceived Democratic over-reach. They won’t want to salt any ground when their business model relies on the clicks and follows they’ll get from the next Trump figure to come along and make politics exciting (for them) again.
brendancalling
@Raven: thank you for this!!!
Geminid
The last couple times I camped at Santa Rosa Lake State Park I got take-out green chli at the Comt II restaurant in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It was basically stewed green Anaheim-tupe peppers with potatos and pork. I don’t think there were any beans or tomato at all.
Sure Lurkalot
@mrmoshpotato: If you peel them, the shrimp get rubbery and the sauce too absorbed. The shell aids in the poaching.
karen marie
@Sure Lurkalot: When you say “layer shrimp and sliced lemon,” is that shrimp/lemon/shrimp/lemon or shrimp/lemon/shrimp or just shrimp/lemon?
Dan B
@Baud: I was there with Satby. It was glorious. The Viaduct was noisy and dirty. Now the waterfront is blissful. Well… it helped that it was wonderful weather after heavy rain in the morning. The downtown waterfront was one of the least appealing places in the area.
karen marie
@Baud: “Found dead”? HE FELL FROM THE THIRD FLOOR.
Wasn’t there another musician who died in Buenos Aires under questionable circumstances in the not too distant past?
nickdag
@The Audacity of Krope: lol I was entering the comments to make the exact same point. :)
Geminid
@Geminid: That would be the Comet II restaurant. It’s a couple miles off of I-40 and worth a stop if you are traveling through and are hungry.
I like to camp at Santa Rosa Lake State Park on my way in and/or out of New Mexico. There are 10 tent sites at the top of a ridge overlooking a hundred or so camper and RV sites. It can be very windy though.
Sure Lurkalot
@karen marie: I use a fairly small casserole dish (Corningware, thanks, grandma!) so it’s usually about 4 layers alternating but since it’s stirred midway through, it’s not super critical. I use the glass lid.
Kay
What is that crazy braided- looking tree, BC?
karen marie
@Trollhattan: Every time a news outlet reports that Musk is “donating” Starlink, they should also report that:
The Trump Trials and Tribulations episode at Lawfare the week of Hurricane Helene was interrupted at least four or five times because Anna Bower kept losing her Starlink internet connection.
karen marie
@Sure Lurkalot: It sounds wonderful. I want to make it. I just have to figure out my food schedule. My local Chinese restaurant has been closed for two months and I think they’re now back.
slightly_peeved
@TBone:
Yeah, that ain’t global for a reason: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/invasive-species/feral-animals-australia/feral-cats
I like cats, but I keep mine indoors so they don’t go killing all the native wildlife. Such as the bin chickens – sorry, ibises – pictured in the original post.
mrmoshpotato
@Sure Lurkalot: I see.
kindness
Chili….I use pork tenderloins in mine. I start with Carrol Shelby’s Texas Chili mix and gussy it up adding a little of this and a little of that. Dice and fry an onion and bell pepper. Couple cans of beans at the end. Gotta have cornbread with chili or it isn’t chili.
KrackenJack
@Raven:
Added to my library For Later list. Thanks!
The Lodger
@karen marie: So… he wasn’t dead when they found him?
Lapassionara
@Sure Lurkalot: good. Keep that recipe alive.
sorry to be late responding. I hope you see this.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@brendancalling: Sauce piquant served on what?
The basic sauce is in the old Picayune Creole Cookbook, on page 167. I can’t cut & paste from my Kindle, but if you’re willing to wait while I type it out I can get it for you.
prostratedragon
@Soprano2: Try whimpering. I did that with a cat and he quickly got the message, the little dear.
I gotta get out of this place
@brendancalling: Try Kevin Belton on pbs. He’s a chef from New Orleans. There’s more than one sauce – there’s fish, pork, and chicken versions
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Saban palm, I think.
@slightly_peeved: It’s a huge problem everywhere.
prostratedragon
@Baud:
🎼🎶On a clear day, you can see🎶
your hand!
catclub
@Sure Lurkalot: Thanks!
catclub
@Sure Lurkalot: The recipe I found calls for about 5-10 times as much worcestershire and tabasco.
I guess I would tread with some caution.
karen marie
@The Lodger: What I understand is the popo were called because he was drunk and acting out, and then someone reported a body in an interior courtyard. Jumped, fell accidentally or pushed is anyone’s guess.